Monday, 24 April 2006

“[P]reservation goes with creation. Nor are we to view preservation simply as an unchanging conservation of the forms of creaturely existence laid down at the first. It is a living occurrence, continued creation, a constantly new creative fashioning that goes beyond what was given existence originally.... God’s action, then, is seen to be a single act that embraces the whole cosmic process, that includes at the same time many individual acts and phases, and that thus leaves room for a plurality of creatures....

“Critics of the understanding of preservation as continued creation have objected that it calls into question the independence of creatures and their actions, or at least their identity and continuity. But these fears are groundless if God is faithful to himself in his creative action. The faithfulness of God guarantees as well as makes possible the emergence and persistence of continuously existing forms of creaturely reality and their ongoing identity and independence.”